Houston Hospital Mixes Up Newborns

Houston couple Jessica Escobedo and Aaron Powell just had their third child and were over the moon about her birth on Dec. 10. However, when a nurse reportedly brought Escobedo the wrong child to feed, the mom went into panic mode over fears that her infant was in grave danger, MyFoxHouston reports.

Escobedo, who gave birth to daughter, Melanie (pictured), at Oak Ben Medical Center just outside of Houston, said that the latest edition to their family was the last one, so the little girl is extra special.

When a nurse brought Melanie to Escobedo during feeding time, the mom immediately noticed that the child did not belong to her and that the name band on the infant did not match her own. “I asked the nurse where was she and they actually took my baby to another mother,” she said. “She was over there for like two hours and the other mother actually breast-fed and didn’t notice that she had the wrong baby.

“I didn’t think I’d see my own child getting handed to someone else and they put their nipple in her mouth,” the mom added.

Well Escobedo’s nightmare did unfortunately materialize, as Melanie was reportedly in the company of another mother for two hours. During this time, the woman actually did breastfeed the child. According to Escobedo, the woman did not even notice she had the wrong child.

Escobedo’s mom, Geneva Fuentes, has been demanding answers for Oak Ben’s alleged faux pas. “I felt a mistake that big the hospital should’ve asked my daughter what do you want to happen at this point and it didn’t happen like that,” she said.

Oak Bend’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Douglas Thibodeaux, told Fox, “The agency nurse failed to follow protocol, which was checking both bands, one on the baby one on the mother.”

Hospital officials told Fox that they conducted an internal investigation of the Escobedo matter and the nurse who made the mistake has since been dismissed.

Dr. Thibodeaux explained to My Fox, “There is no question it should not happen because the bands are very specific to the babies and we should never get the babies mixed up but as you know it does happen.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Oak Bend told Fox that the mother who breastfed Melanie was put through a battery of tests for diseases and nothing came back positive.